CONCEPTS IN CLAY - A NUDE, A HIPPIE AND A SNAKE

About a year ago, I got introduced to working with pottery, raku and clay sculpture. It was around this time that I stumbled across an article on the incredible artist Paul Thek and his beeswax-cast sculptures. One sculpture in particular that caught my attention included a life size cast of himself, which was part of an installation called “The Tomb- Death of a Hippie.” The Whitney Museum included photos of it in an exhibition of his work “Meat Pieces” which interweave personal meanings along with wider cultural and political concerns. I loved the concepts and ideas in his work and thought…I wonder if I can do that in clay?!
 

Me - sculpting the clay

Thus began a series of clay sculptures I have titled “Paradise Lost”. I created these pieces primarily as an expression of my own personal journey of faith and spirituality but also to attract attention to delve beyond the singular, to push the viewer to experience their own spiritual moment, whatever his/her religious conviction. Much like Paul Thek, I wanted to communicate and interweave my thoughts, ideas and experiences both on a personal level and one that explores a wider range of concern for and with the world around me.The piece I titled, "The Temptation of Eve" for example, is a metaphor of my own struggle with intense sensual passion but it also examines social concerns of greed and technology that destroy the human spirit.

I intend of firing and later staining my piece "Modern Eve" with an evergreen color then mounting her to the press board which will serve as a backdrop. Around the press board I intend to stretch a canvas which I will paint in a define abstract style of drip painting. To complete the piece I will need to create an iron welded stand that will erect the sculpture facing upwards.

For my piece "The Temptation of Eve" I will to slow fire the clay, then raku, and mount on a welded stand. Both sculptures will receive a counter part of Adams in like.



"The Temptation of Eve" - unfired clay sculpture, 24" tall - "Paradise Lost" series 




Paul Thek working on “The Tomb” in his studio, circa 1966

61” tall, unfired sculpture (modern) “Eve” on 73”x 29 ½” press board – the modern day Eve is a distressed sculpture to reflect the times that we live in. In today’s world, she is tempted by the propaganda of commercialism and consumerism, again lured into not thinking for herself. – from the “Paradise Lost” series